Down­town Yonge

Yonge Street, Toronto’s main artery, is the di­vid­ing line be­tween the east and west sides of the city. Its full length runs nearly 2,000 kilo­me­tres but thank­fully the busy stretch through the down­town core is a lit­tle shorter.

CUL­TURAL HUB

Yonge-Dun­das Square is of­ten re­ferred to as Toronto’s Times Square. The one-acre pub­lic space is a pop­u­lar gath­er­ing spot that hosts cul­tural fes­ti­vals, con­certs, com­mu­nity events, and the­atri­cal per­for­mances year-round. It is lo­cated just a few steps from the CF Toronto Ea­ton Cen­tre, and con­cert venue Massey Hall, which is cur­rently un­der­go­ing ren­o­va­tions.

1 Dun­das St. E., yd­square.ca

SEE A SHOW

The El­gin and Win­ter Gar­den Theatre Cen­tre is the last op­er­at­ing dou­ble-decker theatre in the world. Year-round, take a tour of this Na­tional His­toric Site, which high­lights the his­tory and restora­tion of the venue, and see sam­ples from the world’s largest col­lec­tion of vaude­ville scenery. Un­til Novem­ber 3, Opera Ate­lier’s pre­sen­ta­tions of Ac­téon and Pyg­malion are on stage, and from Novem­ber 30 to Jan­uary 5, Ross Petty Pro­duc­tions takes over with The Wizard of Oz. 189 Yonge St., her­itagetrust.on.ca

SHOP­PING MECCA

Down­town Yonge is home to the city’s big­gest shop­ping cen­tre, the CF Toronto Ea­ton Cen­tre (220 Yonge St., cf­shops.com). One of the busiest malls in North Amer­ica, it’s home to more than 200 shops, in­clud­ing Nord­strom, La­coste, Roots, H&M, Pan­dora, and Harry Rosen. Con­nected by a pedes­trian walk­way is the flag­ship Hud­son’s Bay (175 Yonge St., the­bay.com), Canada’s iconic depart­ment store, which shares space with Saks Fifth Av­enue (saks­fifthav­enue. com) and a Saks Food Hall by Pusateri’s (pusateris.com).

HAVE A PINT

Head to 3 Brew­ers for a pint and some tra­di­tional pub fare. The menu, which has rec­om­mended beer pair­ings from their of­fer­ings of white, blonde, am­ber, brown, and IPA brews, in­cludes the likes of beer-bat­tered fish and chips and spicy beer mus­sels. They also serve flam­mekueche, a tra­di­tional ar­ti­sanal flat bread

from North­ern France with nu­mer­ous top­pings, like sun dried toma­toes and goat cheese or spicy sausage and olives.

275 Yonge St., les3brasseurs.ca

HOOP DREAMS

Fans of bas­ket­ball, and more specif­i­cally the great num­ber

23, should head over to Air Jor­dan. Only the sec­ond store of its kind in North Amer­ica, all things Jor­dan can be found here, in­clud­ing plenty of ath­letic and bas­ket­ball shoes—not to men­tion lim­ited edi­tion sneak­ers—as well as Toronto-themed ap­parel. There’s a cus­tomiza­tion cen­tre where shop­pers can have Toronto lo­gos and im­ages printed onto T-shirts and more. 306 Yonge St., nike.com

FAR EAST FLAVOURS

In busi­ness for more than 35 years, Bangkok Gar­den serves au­then­tic Thai cui­sine based on the Thai prin­ci­ples of bal­anc­ing the five tastes. Housed in an his­toric build­ing with an airy din­ing room, the menu fea­tures dishes such as toasted cashew chicken, red or emer­ald chicken curry, pad Thai, and pineap­ple shrimp fried rice. The pop­u­lar lunch buf­fet of­fered Mon­day to Fri­day in­cludes more than a dozen main cour­ses, as well as sal­ads, ap­pe­tiz­ers, and dessert. 18 Elm St., bangkok­gar­den.ca

SNAP­SHOTS IN TIME

A com­mand­ing glass fa­cade at the cor­ner of Gould and Bond streets is the site of the Ry­er­son Im­age Cen­tre, an in­no­va­tive re­search and teach­ing fa­cil­ity for pho­tog­ra­phy. The RIC boasts an im­pres­sive col­lec­tion of more than 375,000 ob­jects, in­clud­ing im­ages from the Black Star Agency, which is renowned for its pho­to­jour­nal­ism. 33 Gould St., ry­er­son­im­age­cen­tre.ca

MOVEABLE FEAST

If you’re look­ing for a quick bite on the go, drop by Banh Mi Boys for a Viet­namese-in­spired sub sand­wich. There are plenty of meat op­tions like grilled pork or chicken, five spice pork belly, braised beef cheeks, or even squid, which are stuffed into a bun with pick­led car­rots, cu­cum­bers, and cilantro. There are also ta­cos and steamed bao, as well as sides of kim­chi or tofu fries, and ji­cama pa­paya salad. 399 Yonge St., banhmi­boys.com